Air Spectacular Magazine,
July 2000.
Charlie Mike Romeo has given me endless hours of enjoyment over the years. Although she took to the skies for the first time only last October 25th she has been the source of great satisfaction from the day that I set out to build her. How, you ask, can one find enjoyment in spending all of those hours, not to mention all of that money on a workshop project whose goal may lie years and years away? Easy! The satisfaction comes from the journey not the arrival. Call me sad but I love to see a job well done. I get great pleasure from taking on a job which is bigger than myself and then working my way through the problems until I make them my own. Constructing an aircraft is surely one of the most difficult tasks that any one individual can take on and that, it seems to me, is why I started out. From the very start every facet of every element within the airframe must be perfect in its formation and performance.
The builder has to master a whole range of complex aviation related trades and all the while of course the stakes are simply so high! The safety and the certification of the aircraft depend on maintaining the very highest standards of workmanship and detailing throughout every portion of the airframe.
Indeed the standards of workmanship in homebuilt aircraft should be even higher than those of factory built planes because homebuilt planes are, in the course of certification, subject to even higher levels of scrutiny. It may seem dull but therein lies the buzz! You complete a small assembly within the structure. You have triumphed over adversity. It seemed at first that the task was impossible, that such exotic materials would not be available to ordinary mortals, that you would never be able to machine them to the required tolerances.
Now the part meets perfectly with the specification and the assembly does exactly what was required of it. You move on to the next task and your plane is one step closer to completion. QED. And I’m not the only sad aeroplane builder out there! There is a network of amateur aircraft builders both within Ireland and indeed spanning across every corner of the world. Help and expert advice are always at hand.
Building ones own aeroplane provides some of the best excuses I’ve ever come across for social occasions friendships parties and, of course, travel to far away exotic airfield locations. Essentially we homebuilders are, within the aviation community, the equivalent of the anorak clad computer nerds except that our trademarks are grubby overalls, and dyeline prints.
The Long-Ez aircraft has somewhat of a cult following in aviation circles. Its rakish back-to-front lines mean that it does not fit into any standard aircraft stereotype. The average Sunday afternoon pilot, therefore, wouldn’t give it the time of day. But serious flyers and serious enthusiasts understand the figures.
Just occasionally a passing jet pilot will walk the entire length of the airport to find the Long-Ez aircraft he saw as he taxied into the terminal building. He checks out the cockpit, quotes the performance figures, and tells you about the time he flew one in some far flung part of the world. Suddenly it was all worth it. That a professional pilot who makes his living flying a Learjet could work up such an interest in your humble project leaves you feeling chuffed in spoonfulls.
Your project has been completed, is at the airport, has made the grade. Simply put, the Long Ez can out-perform most aircraft of its class. Long Ez aircraft currently hold the records for endurance and for height for aircraft of its weight category. The aircraft is capable of flying staggering distances considering its diminutive size and will certainly far out-fly the average pilots bladder. It currently holds the world record for height for aircraft of its weight category recently reaching a ceiling of 26,000 feet.
Now it is most unlikely that I will ever ask my project to accomplish any of these feats but isn’t it nice to know that I could. Not bad for something that started out on a workbench!
It is most important to point out that the Long-Ez is not a kit aeroplane. There is no foolproof plan, no box of kit parts. Each and every part of the aircraft has to be made from scratch, and all of the materials sourced and ordered from specialist aviation suppliers across the Atlantic. Indeed the shopping and the project planning often seemed to be more difficult than the project itself.
To find that you were missing one tiny fitting could cause a delay of weeks. Exchanging aviation hardware and tools with fellow builders becomes an important part of the materials supply chain. On most occasions when I would call to the home of fellow builder, Dave Ryan, I would leave laden down with borrowed parts.
Indeed the project would simply not have been possible without the help of Dave and some of the other builders here in Ireland. Over the years each of the group has evolved an expertise in some aspect of aviation related technology. All of these skills were generously made available to me as the project progressed, along with huge quantities of practical help, vast quantities of technical advice, and many many of cups of tea.
Charlie Mike Romeo first entered Ireland in the form of five gallon drums of an advanced epoxy resin liquid. Every part of the outer airframe was then made up out of this liquid material. Complex compound airfoil shapes were cut out of foam blocks and the structural surfaces applied over.
The work was painstaking and exacting in the extreme necessitating long work-cure cycles and almost unbearably hot working environments. The advantages, however, were the ability to form the complex compound curves necessary to maximize airfoil efficiency, and the strength and lightweight nature of the resulting airframe. Anchor points were built into the airframe shell to accommodate later metallic assemblies, instrument clusters and, of course, the engine.
Building an aircraft will play havoc with your social life although it will present as many new colorful opportunities as it will remove old ones. There will be no money for cigarettes and the like and, indeed, that new BMW Cabriolet will have to wait too. The project is, however, a wonderful adventure into a parallel world of aviation and aviation technology which is as rewarding as it is hard work.
As for my next project…..what was invented by a Corkman and travels below the surface of the sea?